Catholic Techie Laura Bradley

Today’s Catholic Techie, Laura Bradley, has a story that struck me as remarkable. I’ll let her tell it herself:

I was working as a youth minster part time at my parish after completing a BA in Media and Cultural Studies after my degree I really wanted to work for the Church in New Media.

I discovered the Catholic social network www.Xt3.com, became a member, and loved it. I saw so much potential for the website to help youth ministry in Australia. So I enquired about some work experience. Now I am working here full time.

That might be exciting enough, but Laura’s passion for ministry didn’t stop just with landing a dream job. She took one of the biggest challenges she faced as a youth minister—that of things calendar-related, from updating them to communicating them to 1000 other details—and made it a priority of Xt3.

And now there’s a user-generated calenda for every diocese in the world on Xt3.com. They have how-to videos on how to use the calendar in your diocese and how to embed it into your parish website and Facebook page.

You can upload your parish events to the diocese calendar and the calendar can be embedded on parish websites. This means that a parish or diocese website will never have outdated events being advertised on their website if they embed the Xt3 calendar. It is a Catholic moderated site and several dioceses in Australia have embedded their specific Xt3 events calendar on their website. It can also be integrated onto a Facebook page, which makes it really a powerful tool.

“My aim and mission,” writes Laura, “is to get this out to every diocese in the world, to create a calendar where you can see all diocese and parish events.”

So with that introduction, let’s dive into the interview…

Tell us about yourself in five words or less.

Catholic, Media, Apologetics, Ministry, ice cream.

Of your pursuits, what’s your favorite?

Youth ministry, media and film.

When you think of the New Evangelization from your approach as a “Catholic Techie,” what excites you? What makes you want to continue?

When I hear of dioceses running New Media conferences and seeing how Xt3, Twitter, and Facebook are being used effectively to pass our Catholic faith to the next generation, this excites me.

What’s the most rewarding aspect of your work?

When someone embeds the Xt3 calendar and emails me saying how useful it is to their ministry.

In your spare time, what are we likely to find you doing? Do you have a gadget in hand or do you go native and screenless?

Socializing, trying out new restaurants, and recently wedding planning. Always have my phone on me and sometimes the laptop.

About Author

When she’s not chasing kids, chugging coffee, or juggling work, Sarah Reinhard’s usually trying to stay up read just one…more…chapter. She writes and works in the midst of rural farm life with little ones underfoot. She is part of the team for the award-winning Catholic Mom’s Prayer Companion, as well as the author of a number of books. You can join her for a weekday take on Catholic life by subscribing to Triple Take, from Our Sunday Visitor.